On Monday, May 31, experts from the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented a study in an online format on the topic: Peculiarities of climate change, the environmental situation and the state of environmental and climate monitoring in the territory of the occupied Crimea for the period 2015-2020. According to the speakers, the dynamics on the peninsula remains negative.
Speakers were:
Yevhen Khlobystov – Professor of the Department of Ecology of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Academician of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Ukraine;
Serhii Voloshin – Candidate of Economic Sciences.
Tetiana Podvorniak – Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (moderator).
In this study, the experts uncovered a number of questions:
• Analysis of the environmental and climate monitoring network carried out by the occupying authorities of the Crimea.
• Peculiarities of climatic conditions and their changes on the territory of the Crimean peninsula.
• Active interventions to artificially increase the amount of precipitation in order to increase the inflow of water into water bodies in the occupied Crimea.
• Ecological situation in Crimea for the period 2015-2020.
Tetiana Podvorniak recalled that since 2014, thousands of representatives of the indigenous peoples of Crimea, including the Crimean Tatar people, live in conditions of interstate conflict, danger and limited access to justice, which is a threat to the sustainable development of the entire region.
"Being under occupation, when the Russian Federation does not recognize the rights of the Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Crimean Tatars do not have the opportunity to contribute to the fight against climate change and related threats to sustainable development",- she stressed.
Yevhen Khlobystov spoke about the environmental situation in Crimea as of 2020, and also informed about the state of the water resources of the peninsula. According to him, solving the problem of water shortage is a very difficult problem. Khlobystov emphasized:
– Increasing the amount of precipitation by setting clouds is not always effective and valuable;
– Construction of plants from artificial desalination of sea water and its use for domestic purposes is an expensive and long-term project;
– Drilling wells does not solve the problem of water supply, since the salt composition of these waters is not constant, and the pumping out of water horizons will provoke dangerous hydrogeological processes;
– Losses caused to the nature reserves of Crimea and the ecosystems of the peninsula in general are subject to careful study and economic assessment for further determination of compensation payments in international courts.
Serhii Voloshin stressed the importance of this study, which allows us to understand what is actually happening in Crimea and objectively assess the reality despite the statements of the occupying authorities regarding the environmental situation of the peninsula.
"Summarizing all that has been said, let us determine that the climatic conditions of Crimea and their dynamics during the period of occupation, the state of the environment and natural resources, in particular water, testify to the intensive deterioration of living and economic conditions in Crimea, the systemic nature of environmental and economic problems. Dynamics "remains negative. What will it lead to? We don't know. But with such studies, we first of all try to inform the international community and the public about what is happening in Crimea",- Tetiana Podvorniak summed up.
This project is part of the Environmental Policy and Advocacy Initiative for Ukraine, implemented by the International Renaissance Foundation with financial support from Sweden.